Tips & Tricks: July Gardening Tasks

Mow water, Mow water, Mow water, Mow water, and more mowing and watering.Oh and picking berries and zukes, oh those zukes I will have pool full.
Raspberry jam this year and maybe some blueberry and blackberry.

-- If you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got!...Lanoka Harbor, NJ 6b

• finishing harvesting and preserving the strawberries; then move into the red currants
• try and stay ahead of the weeds (I’m already losing that battle)
• sit and enjoy the beauty in my backyard

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

MsD,
I like the sitting and enjoying. I think I will do alot of that too.

Right now I am sitting and recovering from the mowing.

-- If you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got!...Lanoka Harbor, NJ 6b

and I’m sitting and recovering from picking berries… ooy the back!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Start fall leafy greens.
Start second batch of basil.
Start perennial seeds.
Clean greenhouse.
Start prepping the trim on the house for painting.
Turn compost.
Start 60 feet of cobblestone walks. (dig out fill gravel, fill sand tamp tamp tamp)
Cut out edging pathway for crushed rock around trees out front.
Make batch of beer, throw out and buy 24 Kokanee.
Water, Water,Water, Water Water.

-- I want to believe in a lot of things but, in the meantime I have to deal with the truth

rosewood513: do you have any simple recipes for jam from strawberries, raspberries, etc?
In July, really start weeding, a bit every day (still discovering what is weeds and what is plants); water; mow; bbq (to make up for most of the winter without same); enjoy, enjoy, enjoy what is growing; make a record of the present gardens to note what I will do differently next growing season; adopt just a few more plants (I keep saying that!); and spend time with loved family and friends (that is the most easy part of July). Now that 2009 is half-way done, I pause to notice how wonderful this month is because you-know-what will be back soon enough ( Lady Autumn and Old Man Winter).

The whole internet will supply any I don’t have, hy do you know any great ones?

-- If you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got!...Lanoka Harbor, NJ 6b

I guess from the number of pictures I keep showing off, you know I spend a good deal of my time in the gardens….taking pictures. I also watch for butterflies, and I have already started seeing monarchs and swallowtails with the little white and yellow sulphurs. Between bird-watching and butterfly chasing (to get pictures) I don’t know when I have time to do much else. HeHe…...............................

But I do cut the grass, at least until we start getting the hot dry weather that stops it from growing. I don’t water the grass. I have soaker hoses in the garden for the flowers if it get too dry. And I water the dozen bigger pots of annuals that I have scattered around. And I have to dead-head and prune flowers if they start getting out of control. And I do this at the ‘Girls’ Home’ as well.

Like Cynthia I like to try and plan what I might change for next year. Everything is getting big and showy in July so now is a good time to decide if that needs to be moved or if something else would work better in this spot.

I make strawberry jam and raspberries/red currant jam for the freezer. Love it on toast or ice cream in the winter.

I try to keep the weeds down in the dog run…...someday I’ll get a new dog, I hope. :-)

I love to visit other folks gardens to see how and what they are doing. July is a good time for that bc many perennials are blooming them and the annuals are putting on a great show. There several garden tours around.

Bob. I sided the house so no more painting for me…..and put in new windows. <vbg>

I clean up my tools and organize my potting station in the garage, again.

I enjoy all the new, fresh Ontario produce that is at the fruit stands, farmers market and grocery stores now.

Oh yea…....I spend a lot of time on GardenTenders looking at what other GT members are doing. :-)

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

Iris: Chasing butterflies and birds…Is that what keeps you so young-all that exercise? I can picture you leaping and carousing with a net and camera! LOL! Do you require a uniform or just casual clothes? Ah, yes. Enjoying the Ontario produce is something that I too enjoy. Strawberries are now out and corn. Do you have or recommend any simple fruit jam recipes? Wanted to try some so in the winter (how many times have I mentioned that word today-MUST STOP) I could still taste summer! Thanks, if you can.

July … pretty much just enjoying my gardens …
Do love to putz around the yard … mowing, watering, weeding, pruning here and there … but mainly as I said above … just enjoying my gardens.

-- "A beautiful garden is a work of heart" -- Royal Oak, MI - Zone 5

My mother in law says it has something to do with zodiac signs. I am exactly like my father in law when it come to foolin around in the outside and his birthday is one day before mine. We are Aries. He is gone now but I can go outside and spend all day out there just a piddlin no matter how hot all day long. Give me your thoughts.

-- my work in progress

July is the time when my gardens are finally all blooming and the patio area is ready to sit at and just enjoy the blooms.Friends come for BBQ’s and a walk around the yard while I tell them what the name of a lot of the flowers are.Hastings is a great town for walking.Most of the people here go for evening walks and they usually stop by my yard to have a look.I always feel so good when they tell me how nice it looks.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

tidying time, last big clean up because i take my vacations in august and all i will want to do is RELAX…..so i hurry the weeding, mulching, deadheading, last plantations…...

-- south shore montreal, zone 5a, whish it was 9

Cynthia, you have a picture of me chasing the butterflies, <vbg> with the camera….no net. I only catch them on film….well not film anymore, but you get the picture. :-)

As for recipes for jams and jellies, I do the freezer type. The recipes are on or in the packages. Certo, Bernadin or whatever is available at your grocery store- – - sometimes even at the fruitstand. It’s so simple, and as long as your freezer containers are the size that you can use up within a couple weeks, you don’t have to worry about boiling baths, etc. I just boil the kettle and pour the water over the containers and lids immediately bf filling with the jam, put the lids on and let stand for about half to an hour. Then into the freezer….....but one goes into the frig for use right away. M-m-m good.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

As spring was really late in coming here, I’m still building up my butterfly garden. Since it’s planted over a bed of aggressive snow-on-the-mountain, I have to constantly control it from taking over. Much more successful than I thought, because I placed six layers of newspaper and mulch over it in the spring, and it’s really held most of it at bay. So the new plants are doing really well! Not many butterflies, yet …

-- Chris, the Prairies, zone 3b in a good year, http://Goorganicgardening.com

Have seen a lot of bees (bumble and otherwise); swallowtails; small orange butterflies; but, alas, no hummingbirds! Miss them. Maybe they visit when I’m at work or sleeping (during the day)? Butterfly bush is about to flower-surely that will attract them! Don’t have any Mandevilla blossoming this year. Last year, the little birds just loved them. Didn’t buy them early this year and the large ones are very expensive ($35.00 a container). White ones are only $3.99 a six-inch pot, but we don’t like white ones! Oh, well….

I have just harvested my first batch of plums from our plum tree. The apples will be ready soon as well. I am trying to keep up with the weeding- which seems pretty hopeless. I am giving away kale, lettuce, and zuchini to anyone who will take it off my hands. Watering, of course and enjoying the almost ready to bloom daylilies and gladiolas.

Wish I lived near you Jesse.I would sure take some lettuce and zucchini off of your hands.Love them both. :-)

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Weed, deadhead, stare at the back of the house and wish I had a backhoe.

-- Zone 4a or 4b... depending on where you are standing!